Puzzles and Tricks
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Layton and Luke go to visit their old friend Phoenix, but once they get there Luke is surprised by the newest addition to the Wright family. He may have to defend himself against cooties, as what could be worse than them? Layton / Ace Attorney crossover.


Notes - For a prompt-fest that I recently posted. Karnimolly wanted Luke and Trucy under the prompt of "solving puzzles". Set in a slight AU of the Ace Attorney universe, sometime not long after Phoenix has adopted Trucy, with an established friendship between Phoenix and Layton. Contains some spoilers for Apollo Justice.

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><p>"It's been a while since we've visited Mr, Wright, 'asn't it, professah?" Luke said as they got out of the car.<p>

"Yes, it has, my boy. But you see, Mr. Wright has been involved in an unfortunate string of circumstances recently that have kept him rather preoccupied. There hasn't been much of a window for us to see him before now," replied Layton.

Luke had read the newspapers, so he knew that this was a nice way of putting what had happened recently with Phoenix being disbarred from being an attorney over a forged evidence charge. Poor guy. For someone who loved his job as much as Phoenix did it must be really hard to take…

"He could probably do with the company," Luke said, as they knocked on the door.

"To be quite frank, my boy, I don't think it's him you'll be keeping company today," said Layton.

Before Luke could ask anymore the door was pulled open and he found himself looking into the face of a brown-haired girl in a top hat, who appeared to be only a few years younger than he was at most.

"You must be daddy's friend, the British guy," the girl said, addressing Layton.

"That's quite right. I believe your father is expecting me," said Layton, giving her a tip of his own top hat.

"Wait! When did Mr. Wright 'ave a daughter?" Luke demanded, "You never said anythin' about this!"

"Luke, it is not polite to shout in front of a young lady," Layton reminded him, "But to answer your question, Trucy here was adopted by Mr. Wright shortly after he lost his badge."

"Oh, um, okay. Hi then," Luke said to the girl. How like the professor to know exactly what was going on but not say a word about it.

"Hey Layton, I see you and Luke got here all right," came the voice of Phoenix, appearing to stand behind Trucy. His face was looking a bit less shaven and well kept than Luke remembered it being, but overall he appeared quite cheerful for a guy who'd recently lost his job.

"It's nice to see you're doing well, Mr. Wright," Layton answered.

"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Phoenix? But never mind, come inside. I'll put on some tea and the kids can play in the front room while we catch up," said Phoenix, ushering them through the door.

Luke was mortified that he'd just been banished away from the grown-ups like some sort of child.

"Is Maya here?" he asked quickly.

"Not at the moment, she's very busy up at the Kurain Village these days," replied Phoenix.

Great. So he was suck with some little girl he'd never met who probably wanted to talk about girly things and play ponies or something dumb like that. She was even wearing pink! Nothing good could come of that.

"Remember to be a gentleman, Luke," Layton said, heading through to the kitchen with Phoenix. It was almost as if the man could read Luke's mind sometimes.

Luke really wanted to be a true gentleman and knew what the professor always said about being polite to girls, but part of him was still a boy so young that the only thing he associated with the opposite gender was the probability of catching cooties from them.

"Um, so you're Mr. Wright's daughter?" said Luke, since it was the only topic of conversation he could think of.

"Yep, daddy filled out the paperwork and now he gets to keep me," Trucy replied.

"That's great. Well… um, what's all this stuff in 'ere anyway?" Luke asked, glancing around the living room. He couldn't remember Phoenix's apartment ever being quite this messy. It was currently filled with hula hoops, colourful boxes and what looked like plastic spaghetti.

"Those are my props so that I can practise for my show," answered Trucy, smiling at him.

Whatever she meant it was probably something really girly that Luke wanted nothing to do with.

"The professah uses props for puzzles sometimes, like matchsticks and stuff," said Luke.

"Are puzzles like tricks?" Trucy asked quickly, "If daddy's friend can do tricks then I'd love to see them!"

"The professah would never do tricks!" Luke gasped, sounding horrified at the suggestion, "'e's way too busy for stuff like that. Puzzles are different from tricks."

"How so?" demanded Trucy, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well… with puzzles you 'ave t' find the answer and with tricks you… you…" Luke had to admit that he didn't really know what she meant by tricks at all.

"With tricks you have to keep the answer to yourself so that no one else can know how you did it, so everyone will be impressed with you," confirmed Trucy.

"That really rude then. People get confused if they dunno the answer t' stuff," said Luke. He knew that from the hundreds of people that he'd watched Layton solve puzzles for. They were usually all very angry before they got their answers from him.

"It's not rude at all! Everyone was impressed when my old family did tricks and my new daddy likes it when I get them right," said Trucy.

"Puzzles are very different then," huffed Luke, folding his arms.

"Show me some puzzles if you're so sure," Trucy said.

"What?"

"Show me them so I can see how different from tricks they are."

"Very well, but you bettah be prepared, 'cause I'm the professah's numbah one apprentice and I know almost everythin' that 'e does," lied Luke, trying to think of some of the hardest puzzles he could remember.

"Try me," shot Trucy, sending him a glare so determined that it sort of looked funny.

Luke started to laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" Trucy demanded.

"Your face is all scrunched up and silly-looking," Luke told her.

"So was yours about a minute ago," she replied.

"Sometimes the professah's face goes like that when 'e's thinkin' really 'ard about the answer to a puzzle," said Luke, "That looks a bit funny too."

"Daddy's face does the same when he gets bills," said Trucy, laughing a little.

From the kitchen, Phoenix commented, "Sounds like they're getting along though there."

"Well, Luke has been told to be polite to young ladies," said Layton; then he felt a hand tugging on his jacket, "What is it, my boy?"

"Professah, can we borrow some matchsticks for matchstick puzzles? I need t' show Trucy 'ow they work" Luke asked.

"Of course, there you go," said Layton, taking a box out of his pocket and handing them to him.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to let the kids play with matches at their age?" Phoenix asked light-heartedly, watching Luke dash back out of the room.

"He's very mature for his age," said Layton, a slight bit more defensively than he'd intended to sound. The two of them then returned to their drinks and left the children to solve puzzles together.

At the end of the day it was Luke who didn't want to go home and would only leave under the promise that they'd come back again sometime soon. The pair were waved off by Phoenix and Trucy from the door until they drove out of sight.

"You seemed to get along with Trucy quite well," Layton said once they were on the main road.

"Yeah, she's not as girly as I thought she'd be," answered Luke. Maybe she didn't have cooties after all, even if she did wear pink.

"There's nothing wrong with being feminine, my boy," hummed Layton.

"Of course not, professah," Luke replied automatically.

Back at the house, Phoenix closed the door and walked with Trucy back through to the living room.

"They're a bit stuck in their ways, but they're pretty nice guys," he told Trucy, as they both sat down.

"Yeah, they were… um, daddy?"

"What is it?"

"Tomorrow I think I don't want to wear pink anymore. I think I'll wear blue instead," Trucy told him.

"What? Why the sudden change? I thought pink reminded you of your old daddy?" said Phoenix, raising an eyebrow.

"It does… but I'm growing up now and grown-ups wear blue," she said firmly.

"If that's what you want, Trucy," Phoenix laughed.

Maybe that little Triton boy was a bad influence on his daughter, telling her that pink was too girly. He'd have to keep an eye on him. Because Phoenix was nothing if not a good parent.

"Daddy, can I play matchstick puzzles?"

"Sure, knock yourself out."

A very good parent indeed.


End file.
